7 Ways Modern Technology May Be Affecting Human Evolution

It took millions of years and countless genetic mutations for the earliest homo sapiens to eventually morph into what we look like today, and we owe a lot of the most significant changes—including why we developed a bigger brain—to early pre-humans' development of tools and "technology." So how exactly is modern tech shaping how people of the future will look and behave?

We rounded up seven potential consequences of our relatively comfortable reality. Just a heads up: you may want to rethink how many touch screens you use.

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1. Our immune system will be weaker

With our continued dependence on medication for survival, combined with whatever prophylactic methods to prolong good health are forthcoming, our immune systems will be less equipped to handle disease on its own.

3. There will be a hierarchy of genetically modified people

Our achievements in medicine and technology have made it possible for humans to survive all manner of genetic mutations (disease, defects, etc.) that natural selection would have otherwise killed off. Instead we've entered a period that scientists refer to as "unnatural selection," in which we're at the helm, modifying what we see fit.

5. We'll live forever

If Google's resident futurist Ray Kurzweil is correct, we will eventually have the ability to upload our brains to the cloud, essentially preserving our minds as a form of software for eternity. It sounds like some outlandish sci-fi conceit, but Kurzweil and other qualified geniuses are predicting we'll be able to do it by the end of this century.

6. Our muscles will atrophy

As we settle into an even more sedentary lifestyle, our muscles will adjust accordingly and we'll enter into a Wall-E-esque reality, less equipped to build bigger and stronger bodies, and crippled by weakness. After all, it's happened before.